As Konrad summarized: 'I feel especially proud too that Viva Technology was co-founded by Publicis Groupe with Les Echos in 2016. It truly shows that we are a company that doesn’t just talk about innovation, we are actually leading the way to enable and create innovation. For those of you who have been to one, you would be familiar with the intensity of the VivaTech experience. The scale of the exhibition and the rich discussion across the different stages is both exhilarating and overwhelming at the same time.'
Viva Technology is now the largest startup and technology event in Europe attracting CEOs, C- leaders, VCs, and startups from all around the world. In 2022, 90,000 in-person visitors attended the event and 300,000 digital connections were made.
Konrad highlighted his experiences from VivaTech in four key themes: 1) Talent ● Health & Well-Being of Employees as a Priority: as companies, we need to step up on ensuring Health & Well-Being is a key part of our talent strategy to protect our talent and consequently our business ● Bosses as Coaches: Today’s managers should be trained to provide emotional support to employees, to drive a more positive and supportive work culture.● A strong culture Drives Clarity: The clarity of thought and stewardship of the mission helps guide employees through uncertainties of the future. ● Skills as a Currency: Beatrice Kosowski, President of IBM France urges us to be not only client centric but people-centric and to look at employees from the potential that they bring (skills) and not based solely on their past experience.
2) Trust and the Experience Evolution ● Building Internal Trust on Data is Key to Success: beyond building the right data infrastructure, it is essential to build the trust with employees that the data and info they are getting through the tool are beneficial to the work they do. ● Building Trust of the Customer: the biggest challenge to breaking through the noise is to make sure that digital content builds consumer trust. And it can only be achieved when it is aligned with consumer values. ● The Experience Revolution: Augmented reality (AR) can be the next big thing, by enhancing reality, but not replacing it. Throughout the entire VivaTech we could feel how important it is to see, feel and understand where innovation can take us. It might seem challenging, but at the same time, absolutely inspiring.
3) Future of Tech ● AR + Personal Consumer Experience = New Long-Term Trend in Tech: Augmented reality (AR) coupled with the personal consumer experience is a new long-term trend in technology. With 250 million people engaging with augmented reality (AR) via Snapchat daily, these are certainly not baseless statements.
4) Metaverse Dominates the Discussion ● A Developing Chapter: Metaverse is unsurprisingly a consistent theme at VivaTech, even though it is still very much a developing chapter. This year at Viva Tech, Publicis Groupe announced a new interface or rather, the ‘appointment’ of Leon, a new chief metaverse officer, to further help our clients understand, navigate, and develop Web3 strategies. Created by Publicis Conseil, Leon is an avatar (with a Linkedin profile) who is tasked to: 1) Accompany clients and help advise how to navigate and approach the meta jungle, with strategies unique to their business, 2) Act as a guide to employees with the support of the right expertise and teams at the Groupe, 3) Showcase the very best examples of Web3 from our clients and from across the Groupe. If you are ready to deep dive into this topic, check out the full article here